This week I had the privilege of attending SocialDay Marketing Festival with my new team at StrategiQ. Let me tell you, the SocialDay team know how to make a lineup! So, what do you do when there’s not a single talk you can bear to miss? You go to them all.
I spent 15.5 hours listening to social media experts spill their secrets, and here’s what I took away from it all…
Pose the question
Highlight the problem with a question, and then answer it in your post. Not only will this give your post a hook, but it will also help you create a story. Great stories lead to great watch time – in the words of Ruth Lee, ‘if it’s good, people will stay.’
Double down
Check in on your content and analyse what’s performing well. This could mean diving into your metrics more often than just your monthly report. Once you’ve identified your top performers, double down on creating that content until interest slows down.
Be human, be relevant
Take community management to the next level by meeting your audience at a human level, whether it’s remembering their name, or implementing their feedback behind the scenes. Stay relevant by being down to earth, and connecting with your audience in cultural moments they care about. The result? The most engaged audience you’ve ever had.
Followers are irrelevant
Okay, they could be becoming relevant. But it’s something we should be paying attention to – with the TikTok algorithm consistently delivering users content and creators they want to see, the ‘followers’ metric is less representative of popularity than ever before.
Uploading both Shorts and long form YouTube videos will increase watch time
YouTube Shorts get 70B daily views. Don’t sleep on them. YouTube’s Charles Kerr shared that the platform has found users sharing both long and short form content have seen increased watch time on all formats.
Seriously, double down
Let me double down on this point; it was raised by multiple speakers across the full three days. The best thing you can do for your content is drive home the high-performers! And if it didn’t stick like you thought it would, re-edit, re-structure, and post again – find out what works.
Content that gets views is more important than strategy | Strategy is more important than content that gets views
Hear me out. We heard arguments both ways, each careful not to discredit the other. The point being; sometimes you’re overthinking it, and the simplest (occasionally lowest quality) content could be the answer. The key is to know which tack fits your brand/client. Should you be picking a strategy and sticking to it? Or should you let yourself push the boundaries a bit?
‘Sustainability’ is dead
Take the word ‘sustainability’ out of your comms. Use ‘positive action’ instead. See how your audience receives it.
Audience alignment doesn’t equal influencer interestÂ
Just because your analysis of the influencer’s audience tells you they align with your brand, doesn’t mean the influencer does. Your research should be comprehensive, if you’re not sure The Influence Room can help.
Be accessible
Camel-case hashtags, closed captions, alt tags. All of these should be a part of your content creation process, if they aren’t, your content isn’t accessible. These small adjustments can make it easier for screen-readers to pronounce your hashtags, and for users to understand what’s contained within your images.Â
While there was much much more to take in at SocialDay, my laptop is making that spaceship-tornado sound. It’s telling me to give it a rest. If you want the low down and the nitty gritty details, drop me an email – jen.radford@strategiq.co
